Page from a Sketchbook Depicting a City under Siege and a Scene of Homage(?) (recto); standing figures and a horseman; male and female figures; a battle scene (verso)
1520s
Medium
Pen and brown ink; at the top, traces of a sketch in red chalk (recto); Pen and light brown ink, some of the figures redrawn by the same hand in dark brown ink (verso)
Dimensions
8 9/16 x 5 13/16 in. (21.8 x 14.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Robert Lehman Collection
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number
1975.1.272
Tags
Art Historical Context
This intimate sketchbook page by Domenico Beccafumi, a leading Sienese artist of the early 16th century, captures the turbulence of Renaissance Italy on both sides. Dating to the 1520s, the recto features a dramatic city under siege—walls battered by attackers—and a tentative scene of homage, perhaps knights paying tribute. The verso bursts with dynamic studies: standing figures, aeman, male and female groups, and a chaotic battle, evoking the endless Italian Wars that ravaged city-states like Siena. Crafted in pen and brown ink with faint red chalk underdrawing on the recto, and lighter inks...
About the Artist
Domenico Beccafumi
Italian artist. Comment on works: History